The Office of the CIO and Vice Provost

Ken Stafford was the Vice Chancellor for Technology at the University of Denver before arriving at Kansas State University. He has been actively involved with technology in higher education for more than 30 years. An advocate for the use of technology in education, he has overseen the implementation of ERP and student information systems and he proposed the student laptop requirement at DU, now starting it's twelfth year. Ken has taught computer programming and application development over most of the history of the desktop computer, starting with the Apple II.

Ken started his university career in the University Management Information Services (Institutional Research) department and later became the Chief Financial Officer for the College of Agriculture at the University of Idaho. Ken spent 10 years in the University of Maryland System, as Vice President for Finance and Management at the Maryland Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Interim Vice Chancellor of the University of Maryland System, Vice President for Administration and Finance at Bowie State University, and AVC and CIO of the University System of Maryland.

During his career he has worked on many international projects including the first non-military national network for Egypt, management system design for universities in the Peoples Republic of China, financial systems in Central America, and was keynote speaker at the 16th annual Saudi Arabian National Computer Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He has served on several special commissions for the city of Denver, foundation boards, presented at many technology conferences, chaired the 2009 and 2010 Colorado Computer Symposia, and was named a CSIA All Star CIO for 2009.

Ken was born and raised on a farm/dairy, cattle ranch south of Twin Falls, Idaho. He earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Economics at the University of Idaho. Ken is married to Kristie Kunau Stafford, an attorney.